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Friday, September 23, 2016
QRPp Back Issues (and some new ones too!)
Here's an index:
http://www.k7qo.net/qrpp_toc_de_k7qo.pdf
And here are lot of the back issues:
http://www.ncqrpp.org/
And I see there are August and September 2016 editions available in the Files section (KI6DS) of the qrp-tech Yahoo group. Did I see articles there from Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith?
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Preserving Vanguard 1
Ira Flatow of "Science Friday" was recently talking about how best to preserve important bits of the history of mankind's exploration of space. Our old friend Vanguard 1 was mentioned several times. It is now the oldest satellite still in space.
You can listen to the Science Friday show here:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/protecting-the-historic-human-record-in-space/
They also have a transcript of the show on the same page.
SolderSmoke fans will remember the Vanguard adventures of Mike Rainey AA1TJ:
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Vanguard
This seems to be the month for Vanguard: just a couple of weeks ago, on 40 meters I spoke to Dale Parfitt W4OP. Dale was one of the first people to pick up Mike Rainey's Vanguard replica signals (see link above).
AND...
The Vanguard reproduction project came up during Eric Guth 4Z1UG's "QSO Today" interview with Graham Firth G3MFJ of the G-QRP Club:
http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/g3mfj
(Graham has such a great voice. He definitely SHOULD build a phone rig!)
VIVA VANGUARD!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Monday, August 31, 2015
Awesome Kits from Austin Texas
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Hamfest Presentation on SolderSmoke and BITX (Video)
The Vienna Wireless Society of Northern Virginia asked me to give a talk at their 23 Feb 2014 hamfest. I spoke about homebrewing and the BITX transceivers. Click on the link below to watch the video. (Special thanks to Elisa for doing the video.)
https://vimeo.com/87725154
The Powerpoint slides are here:
http://soldersmoke.com/winterfest.pptx
For those who just want to listen podcast style, I will try to turn the audio into a podcast and will post it via the normal channels.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Bert's Blog and BITX
Our friend Bert is once again melting solder. And he has launched a blog. (SolderSmoke listeners will remember Bert as the advisor to the University of Virginia radio club. That was the club that had its HQ in some sort of nuclear reactor building. They put up a huge wire antenna, but then took it down when they realized bike riders could possibly, uh, run into it.) Bert has some interesting stuff on his blog, including an article on conductive paint and one on the use of mail boxes as antenna tuner enclosures. And he reports that he has dusted off a BITX 20 kit. Welcome back Bert!
Check out his blog:
http://wf7ihomebrew.wordpress.com/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Friday, November 8, 2013
Knack-to-the-Max! Early Moonbounce
The link below will take you to an amazing collection of QST articles describing the early days of EME or "moonbounce." Very interesting. I was really blown away when I found out that Ross Bateman, W4AO, (pictured above, on the left) did the very first amateur moonbounce work from the small suburban Washington town that I live in now -- Falls Church, Virginia!
I am trying to find OM Ross's old address or more info about him. If anyone has an old callbook, could you please look up Ross Bateman, W4AO, aka W4XNB? He worked at the National Bureau of Standards.
The moonbounce story is filled with interesting technology and characters and clubs. Sam Harris and his Rhododendron Swamp VHF Society sounds like our kind of group! Scroll through the OK2KKW web site and you will come across our esteemed Doug DeMaw and Bill Orr.
http://www.ok2kkw.com/eme1960/eme1960eng.htm
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Society for Model and Experimental Engineers
Wow. Stop what you are doing and take a look at the four short films about a group of intrepid British knack victims. Very nicely done. Really captures the allure of the shack/workshop.
http://makezine.com/2013/06/28/the-makers-of-things-2/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Sunday, March 10, 2013
A Ham Radio HackerSpace
Bill - Enjoyed your conversation regarding seeing the Maker guys at a recent hamfest. Thought I'd let you know that, at least on a small scale, we've created a ham hacker space in our club by organizing a "Builders Group" as an adjunct to the Williamsburg Amateur Radio Club (WAARC) here in Williamsburg, VA. I volunteered my QTH as a meeting place and the majority of projects have been either QRP or test equipment related. Folks select their own project and bring their own tools to use. These projects have included the Hendricks tri-band QRP transceiver, NorCal FCC-1 frequency counter, N3ZI digital dial, Tuna Tin II transmitter and others.
I corralled two friends in the club to act as "mentors" to assist less experienced builders with soldering and construction. Once builders complete their projects my workbench upstairs is available to verify correct operation or troubleshooting as required.
Here are a couple of pix of the guys having fun melting solder.
73 - Dino KL0S
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
How many hams in China? Not many.
Here are the numbers from from a 2009 IARU report (authored by the Chinese Radio Sports Association:
Monday, July 30, 2012
Report from Dover Construction Club
Sunday, July 29, 2012
SolderSmoke Podcast #145
-- Derecho Storm hits Northern Virginia
Monday, July 9, 2012
QRP in the Country (Somerset, England)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Update from the QRP Ranch
Really enjoyed SolderSmoke 143, great job as always.
I wanted to fill you in on the happenings at the WA6ARA QRP Ranch. A bunch of us are doing a kit build. We meet at the QRP Ranch Man Cave for a few hours of building several times a week. Several of us are building the 40 meter SSB rig that won the homebrew challenge a couple years ago and there are a couple BTX20s and 17 meter rigs being built as well. I'd like to say they are from scratch but alas, we are building them from Hendrick's QRP kits. The first one has been completed, a BTX17, by a 15 year old Extra Class ham in about 3 days. BTW - he already had WAS and DXCC. The next project is the W6JL 50 watt amplifier that won the amplifier homebrew challenge. I am building both the 40 meter and the BTX17 rigs. The 40 meter rig, plus amp is going in a ammo can and then in the jeep for back country emergency use. I've enclosed a couple of photos, including the required chocolate chip cookies to keep the gang going and the solar oven to cook them in.
--
Mike Herr
WA6ARA
DM-15dp
Home of The QRP Ranch
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Alan Wolke on "Chat with Designers" Tonight!
This week's session of Chat With The Designers is tomorrow evening(Tuesday), starting at 8pm Eastern (0000z) on Teamspeak. We are in for a real treat this week, as Alan Wolke, W2AEW, a field applications engineer for Tektronix, will be leading the discussion on atopic he is very familiar with ... "Oscilloscope Basics. '' If you watch an electrical engineer tackling a tough design project, or a service engineer troubleshooting a stubborn problem, you¹ll see them grab a scope, fit probes or cables, and start turning knobs and setting switches without ever seeming to glance at the front panel. To these experienced users, the oscilloscope is their most important tool but their minds are focused on solving the problem, not on using the scope. We have a Notes page set up with a terrific presentation that we¹ll betalking to in this session, so be sure you have your browser set to thisduring the discussion as well ... http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/Apr10.html
If you¹ve not joined us for past topics, you¹ll find that we have some funin this 1-hour online meeting talking about various technical topics thatare likely of interest to homebrewers and experimenters here in our hamranks. It¹s open for everyone and all you have to do is have the Teamspeakdriver loaded onto your computer. (For guidance on this, see
http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/TeamspeakInstructions.html)Looking forward to seeing
(hearing) many of our 30-some regulars, and inviteothers who have not yet joined in on the fun!73, George N2APB& Joe N2CX& Alan Wolke W2AEW
Chat With The Designers ...http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/TeamspeakChat.html
(See this page too for past sessions and MP3 podcasts of the audio portionof each week.)PS: If you happen to follow us in our audio podcasts each week, the lastsession on ³Soldering 101² is loaded and available at:http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/Mar20.html
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Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Friday, March 23, 2012
NJORP's "Chat with the Designers" Podcast
http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/TeamspeakChat.html
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Walford Electronics' "QRP In the Country"
A raffle raised £200 for those suffering in East Africa; the main prize being a year’s subscription to PW kindly donated by Rob G3XFD which was won by Graham G4DPH. George G3RJV was asked to select a couple of displays that ‘appealed’ to him for two other prizes. The GQRP Club had kindly donated a special edition of Drew VK3XU’s latest project book which was also won by G4DPH for his PW Sprat project; a Walford Electronics Radlet CW TCVR kit went to Colin G3YHU for his valved superhet. A years subscription to BYLARA was won by SWL Mike Jones who is about to take his Foundation licence course.
After the event Tim G3PCJ said he was said delighted with the increased attendance and wished to thank everybody whose hard work had made the event so successful. He urged all Clubs within reasonable distance to plan their displays for next year! Watch the press for announcements of the date!
Tim Walford G3PCJ walfor@globalnet.co.uk
WALFORD ELECTRONICS www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~walfor
Proprietor Tim Walford BSc MIEE CEng G3PCJ
Saturday, July 9, 2011
More on Merrill Budlong, W1MB
K1KT's recent e-mail alerted me to the interesting life story of Merrill Peckham Budlong, W1MB. Wow! What a guy! Killed a Great White Shark with a spear gun! Homebrewed his own diving gear! Insisted that the hams he was Elmering actually UNDERSTAND the circuitry! And -- most importantly -- he was obviously a very good person.
We don't run many obits here on SolderSmoke, but even though he passed away four years ago, we thought it would be a good idea to reprint W1MB's. His story can be an inspiration for us all.
Bob, W1YRC, wrote this about him: He was responsible for launching a great many Amateur Radio careers in Rhode Island. He was uncompromising in his teaching and demanded that all his students understood why a circuit performed its function or why it was essential to know how to solder correctly. He was respected and loved by hundreds of hams that knew him.
Here is a para from his obituary:
An active, athletic man, as a teenager Mr. Budlong made his own surfboards and sailing kayaks. In high school and college he was on the wrestling teams, played trumpet in dance bands, and was a lifeguard at Bonnet Shores. He graduated from Cranston High School in 1931 and from the University of Rhode Island in 1935 with a bachelor's degree in business. He was a member of Phi Mu Delta fraternity and Phi Kappa Phi honor society. During World War II, he held a second job at Kaiser Shipyard in Providence. As an avid amateur radio operator (call letters W1MB) and proficient Morse Code operator, he enjoyed contacting radio hams throughout the world. He founded the Fidelity Amateur Radio Club, which met for more than thirty years at his home. He was a Major in the R.I. Civil Air Patrol and a director of the New England Wireless and Steam Museum. Mr. Budlong was an alumnus of Fidelity Chapter DeMolay in which he was a Chevalier. He was a member of the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen and, into his 70s, participated in bicycle races and 100-mile rides. He was often seen riding his bicycle around Edgewood and Pawtuxet Village. He was a pioneer skin diving and spear fishing enthusiast. In the 1940s he built much of his own equipment before it was commercially available. In 1964 he speared a ten foot great white shark in Narragansett Bay. He was also a frostbite sailor, member of the Edgewood Yacht Club, and member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Read the comments that people attached to his obituary: http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/providence/guestbook.aspx?n=merrill-budlong&pid=91256424&cid=full
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Merrill Budlong's Drake 2-B
Sunday, May 15, 2011
SolderSmoke Podcast #134
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke134.mp3
May 15, 2011
New "Ikea" microphone
NOVA QRP Club
WSPR T/Rouble resolved
Finishing up Rome WSPR rig
Easy-Peasy on Asus eee-PC
Space Station Packet Beacon
Boatanchor News: DX-100, HT-37, "CQR" anchors, 75 meter antenna Drake 2-B history interview by W8SX
Lew McCoy and Ernest Hemingway
Ade Weiss, QRPoetry and Ade's new book
Regen theory
MAILBAG (with a focus on New Zealand)